Ichigo swung his sword downwards, and Ulquiorra swung his javelin and repelled the black sword. Both opponents passed by one another right before they turned back, with Ulquiorra being the faster of the two and swung his javelin down at Ichigo, who brought his blade above his head before the javelin clashed against the sword. The contact of the weapons pushed Ichigo back, struggling to keep his balance. "Kggh…" Ichigo grunted as smoke was being derailed under his feet, applying his Spirit Energy to stop himself from getting pressured like this, but Ulquiorra's strength was overwhelming him despite this.
Ulquiorra kept staring at him with those cold, empty eyes of his that met against Ichigo's fierce and determined ones. The nihilist couldn't understand why the Soul Reaper was looking at him like that. After all, everything was pointless and he was merely fighting for nothing. Even if he did manage to beat him, there was still no way for him to come back to Karakura Town. He was going to make sure to break Ichigo's resolve, sooner or later. "It would appear that the power of your Hollowfication has increased considerably. You're even capable of wearing your mask for longer periods of time." Ulquiorra swung his weapon and sent Ichigo away before hitting the ground.
Ichigo was rolling over on the sandy ground with how hard he got pushed down, but he managed to stop himself as he put his sword through the ground and saw Ulquiorra coming at his way, his body swooping low to the surface area. Ichigo fired off a Hollowified Getsuga to prevent Ulquiorra from getting any closer, but the Espada flew above in the air to avoid getting hit. Ichigo came right at him in mid air, engaging in close combat as he kept swinging his weapon but Ulquiorra kept blocking one strike after another with his javelin before kicking Ichigo back down on the ground. Ulquiorra lowered himself before going ahead to fire his javelin at Ichigo.
Ichigo widened his eyes when he saw the weapon being fired at him like a projectile. He tilted his head aside and evaded the javelin. 'That thing is crazy fast!' Ichigo thought before looking back at Ulquiorra, and to his shock he saw another javelin being thrown at him. Ichigo narrowly tilted his body to avoid being stabbed through the face, but the javelin still nicked him on the shoulder, drawing out blood as it did so. Ichigo leaped away further back from Ulquiorra, who was coming after him, but the Arrancar closed in on him by using Sonido. Ichigo quickly brought his blade in a diagonal position above his head as Ulquiorra swung his weapon downwards at Ichigo, who managed to block the blow but got sent away further instead.
Ichigo grunted from the pain as he looked back at Ulquiorra. While he was glad that his mask lasted much longer than it could before, he still wasn't capable of matching Ulquiorra properly. While it was true that he could react to his attacks and defend them from it, he wasn't sure just how long that would last. Ever since Ulquiorra released his sword, the tables have turned more to the Espada's side, but not so much to the point of it being reduced to a one sided fight. But even so, Ichigo knew that Ulquiorra was stronger than him right now. Now the question remained as to how he could defeat him….
Hyorinmaru used a Flash Step just to get behind Halibel and cut her back by swinging his sword horizontally, only for Halibel to turn around and counter his blow by swinging her shark tooth blade against Hyorinmaru's sword, pushing him back in doing so. Halibel now went after Hyorinmaru, thrusting her blade at him relentlessly, and Hyorinmaru had difficulty defending himself before getting his shoulder jammed by the shark tooth, and although it hadn't been fully pierced it still made Hyorinmaru's shoulder draw blood.
Hyorinmaru began to fly away with his wings, trying to gain distance from Halibel as he took flight in mid air. Damn it all, what was he supposed to do here? This body was too weak to handle. Hyorinmaru could already feel the strain forming the longer he kept using it. If only Soul Reapers could heal themselves quickly without medical assistance, and it didn't help that he didn't know how to fight very much, with his user having been the one who did a lot of fighting.
Hyorinmaru widened his eyes when he sensed Halibel behind him, having appeared by using Sonido. Hyorinmaru turned around to strike a horizontal slash at the Espada, only for her to bend her back and kick Hyorinmaru's wrist, making him completely miss his target by a mile as his arm moved upwards. This left Hyorinmaru's guard wide open, and Halibel added this by horizontally smacking the side of his skull with the flat side of her blade. Hyorinmaru gasped in pain as his vision blurred out for a moment, getting sent back down lower in the air. Hyorinmaru grunted as he held his head from the pain before stopping his fall, standing in the air. His head bled from the impact he was received by the shark tooth blade. Hyorinmaru became surprised when he already saw Halibel in front of where he was at.
Halibel raised her blade above her head, her body gleaming with her Spirit Energy. Hyorinmaru felt as though he should defend himself from whatever she was gonna hit him with. Hyorinmaru's sword began to release a faint glimmer of ice, readying his decoy. Halibel struck her weapon down, and before Hyorinmaru could even blink, he got launched back on the ground, with his arm having been chopped off and flew off in the air. Hyorinmaru crashed on the ground roughly, making a crater in doing so.
"While it is true that your power increased exponentially compared to what you were like before, in exchange for this power you lack the fighting skills and experience the boy had." Halibel noted as she saw Hyorinmaru's fallen form, making a sigh in doing so. "At the very least if you combined those two, I wouldn't go as easy on you. But then again, I never expected my match to last very long with you. I still need to save most of my strength against others. And with that, your ice dragon has been taken out by a strike from a shark." Halibel turned her head to look over at where Yamamoto was, standing rather close to where she was at. "You are next…" Yamamoto looked over to the young woman. "I will avenge those 3 you burned. I will make you suffer." she threatened him.
Yamamoto opened one of his eyes as he heard the threat being thrown at him. From his expression, it couldn't be told if he looked to be either surprised or impressed someone would do this to him. She was certainly a feisty one, that much was for sure. She reminded him a bit of the Kurosaki boy with the way she spoke like that to her allies, especially when it came to threatening him. And something told him she was ready to stick up to that as well.
Halibel was just about ready to lunge at Yamamoto, until she saw a familiar silver blade horizontally swung at her eye from point blank range, her attacker being right behind where she was at. 'From behind?!' Halibel thought in surprise as she avoided the blow to her eye by ducking down, and Halibel quickly switched her weapon from one hand to another to allow her to slash through whoever just attacked her behind. To her surprise, it was Hyorinmaru who attacked her, not looking anything like how she cut him as he leaped behind where she was at. "How are you still alive?!" she demanded to know as she turned to look at him.
"You should have paid a little more attention when I was falling down." Hyorinmaru replied to her as he held his sword diagonally.
Halibel looked down where she struck "Hyorinmaru" at, and to her surprise she saw there was nothing but shattered ice fragments. "The one I attacked before… it was an illusion?" Halibel asked in confusion.
"It's one of my techniques… although not something that's used very often considering how obvious it gets for my enemies to figure it out. But in this case, this seemed like a good opportunity when you got distracted. That technique is when I substitute my clone to take an attack for me instead, making them think they hit an illusion instead." Hyorinmaru explained. 'However… The problem is I can only use something like only once per day, and it acquires much use of Spirit Energy as well…' he thought to himself. "Do not underestimate us… so am I to assume that you'll take us seriously?"
"Take you seriously?" Halibel seemed rather amused by this. "I admit that the last attack of yours surprised me, a few seconds longer and you would have damaged either of my eyes for a while. You must take me for a fool…" Halibel's body began to glow with a yellow aura. "... If you think I'm anywhere close to using my full strength to begin with…"
"What the hell did you just say…?" Ggio seemed to be baffled by Soi Fon, who stood in front of him. Their entire battle had been the one where they were fighting as equals, and at times Ggio even overpowered the Captain when releasing his Resurrection. He was just about ready to finish her off, until that fatso interfered and stopped him. Ggio would have been ready to blast him through a Cero, until Soi Fon kicked him away to crash through a building. And as of now, Soi Fon revealed that she was ready to finish him off instead. "You're going to show me a real assassination? Yeah right, I'd like to see you try!"
"Actually…" Soi Fon put her arm in front, as if correcting a mistake she made. "I take back what I said before. This is gonna end so quickly… that you won't have the time to see it." she made a smirk.
This infuriated Ggio even more. It was bad enough that he was mocked enough as it was when he was never taken seriously to begin with. In fact, he was just being treated as some punching bag. "DON'T. YOU. MOCK. ME!" Ggio screamed out in rage before his body began to go through a transformation when he pointed his blaze upwards. "Look, you dumb bitch… I'll show you what true strength is!" his whole body began to swell with large muscles, taking on a more beastial form. "Now prepare to—"
Ggio widened his eyes when he felt a sharp throb of pain enter in through his body. Soi Fon used a Flash Step to appear behind her opponent. "It's over. Victims of my Suzemebachi are killed by the two stings that I deliver. But I'm willing to bet you only felt one…" Ggio widened his eyes in shock, and Soi Fon remembered striking her sting at the right side of Ggio's chest before striking the same mark behind his back.
Butterfly shaped marks appeared on the spots where Ggio was struck at. Ggio turned to look at Soi Fon, refusing to believe what she did. She could have finished him off any time… yet she merely used him as a guinea pig for the upcoming fight against the Espadas. Ggio's body was surrounded with glimmers of Spiritual aura, and he let out one last howl before the larger crests spread from his body from the 2 smaller ones, the user's body being completely destroyed by Nigeki Kessatsu.
"Yeaaaaaah!" Omaeda exclaimed cheerfully, running in mid air to meet where his Captain was at, having just recently finished off his opponent. "Way to go, Captain! But I'm confused though! So, Suzumebachi is effective even if the target isn't hit in the same spot twice in a row?!"
"It did strike him twice…" Soi Fon answered him, and Omaeda became confused by this. "I struck him twice at the same location on his right lung. One from the front and one from the back. I held back using only a small fraction of my strength just so I could test out what fighting an Arrancar was like… but eventually he became a bore, so I went for his internal organs, not the wound."
It was then that a massive surge Spiritual Pressure was released close to where she and Omaeda stood at. Soi Fon could feel that this power was on a whole other league compared to the weakling she fought. And something told her that this one was gonna be anything but easy. "However, the time for chatting is over." Soi Fon looked over to where Barragan was, who looked to be furious. "You better get ready, Omaeda… don't do anything that's gonna sabotage this mission."
Starrk looked over to see how everyone else was doing while he and Shunsui engaged their swords in a lock. He could see that Tia was handling herself just fine, and her Fracciónes were down for the count, so weren't in any condition to fight anymore. All of Barragan's Fracciónes have been killed, so now it was just Lilynette dealing with the white haired Captain while he and this Soul Reaper have been pretending to fight one another.
Shunsui chuckled at seeing the bored expression that his opponent held. It felt like looking at a counterpart of himself with how lazy both of them were. "I hate to break it to ya… but I think I'm gonna have to start taking this more seriously."
"And why is that? I thought we agreed we would just be faking this?" Starrk lazily asked, backing away as Shunsui swung his sword horizontally, only to miss.
"That was gonna be the plan… but unfortunately this isn't a good time for that anymore. Everyone else is getting busy with their opponents, not to mention I can feel Old Man Yama's glare at me, and if I don't take this more seriously I'm gonna get in big trouble with him if I survive this." Shunsui said, right before he lunged at Starrk and swung his sword vertically, to which Starrk side stepped out of the way. "So if you don't mind…" Shunsui switched his blade to his left hand and swung it diagonally at Starrk's face, making the Espada widen his eyes as he brought his sword over his face to block Shunsui's long sword and repelled the Captain behind him. "It would be better if we began a real fight."
"You say that yet you're not even drawing that other blade of yours…" Starrk pointed out.
"I only pull that one out when there's not enough room to work with the bigger blade. You see, they're not meant to be used in conjunction together…" Shunsui replied as he twinkled the handle of his other sheathed sword.
"Is that so…? It's funny how you should say that, seeing how you kept shifting your sword from one hand to another even while we were pretending to fight." Starrk pointed a finger to Shunsui's hand while still holding his own sword. "Also, I dunno if you're conscious of it or not… but your right doesn't extend quite as far as the handle on your left hand. You got a long and a short sword on ya. You appear to be ambidextrous, yet you claim you're not a dual wielder? You must take me for a fool…"
Shunsui was impressed. He thought that he managed to shift his right and left enough to go unnoticed, but clearly he was proven wrong. "Yeah, you got me. I thought I managed to compensate enough to go unnoticed. You're sharper than you look…"
"Meh." Starrk shrugged his shoulders. "Let's just get this over with…"
Ichigo was getting pushed back on the ground by Ulquiorra's javelin, holding his sword horizontally above his head while Ulquiorra pushed his weapon in a vertical manner, holding it with two hands as he did this. "I want you to fire off your Getsuga…" Ulquiorra told Ichigo, something that took the Soul Reaper by surprise.
"You want me to what?!" Ichigo was confused by this, not understanding why his enemy wanted him to unleash his attack. Sure he was already gonna get to use it at its full strength, but why was he getting ordered to do this right now?
"I want you to fire off your Getsuga. If I'm not mistaken, your Hollowfied state is when you are at your most powerful, a form that is capable of holding off and even defeating an Espada. And Getsuga is your most strongest technique, it's when you are at your most lethal." Ulquiorra told him, as the sparks between their locked weapons came out. "And in exchange, I will get to show you my attack as well… and show which one of us is stronger."
Ichigo glared at Ulquiorra, right before he pushed right through their lock and managed to slash across his chest as Ichigo compressed his Getsuga from his blade, drawing out blood from Ulquiorra as he flew above in the air. "Dumbass! I don't need you to tell me what I should do! If you wanted me to use my Getsuga, I was gonna do it eventually!" Ichigo exclaimed as he wildly swung his sword.
"Before you come to using that technique, there is one thing I should tell you. I'm not sure if you're aware of this yourself, but your Black Getsuga does resemble a similar similarity to an Espada's Cero…" Ulquiorra said.
Ichigo became a bit confused by the comparison. "A Cero? I don't see much similarities besides their Spiritual Pressures being more Hollow. What does that have to do with this?" he asked.
"Oh? You haven't seen it yet?" Ulquiorra raised his eyes, intrigued by the response he was given. "I'm surprised, I would have thought Grimmjow or someone else would have shown it to you sooner. I suppose you should be congratulated for making it this far… as I will be the first to show you a Black Cero that only Espadas in their Released States are capable of using…"
"Are you done talking or can we get on with this already?!" Ichigo spun his sword around and raised it above his head, his raw and destructive energy vividly spun around him as a pool while the blade was brimming with his black and red energy high above in the air.
"Very well…" Ulquiorra pointed his index finger down at Ichigo, and the finger began to charge a black and green tinted energy over it. "This is where your path ends from here on. Cero Oscuras." Ulquiorra announced the name of the attack before firing a powerful burst of jet black energy right down at Ichigo.
"Getsuga…" Ichigo was ready to challenge the energy beam that came at him. He charged his best attack with all the strength he had within him. "TENSHOUUUU!" Ichigo fired his energy projectile, the attack roaring before it clashed against Ulquiorra's Black Cero head on.
The two attacks clashed with one another, causing a strong whirlwind to spread of the mixed Spiritual Pressures between Ichigo and Ulquiorra. The Getsuga and the Cero Oscuras seemed to have struggled to take over one another, but this only lasted for brief moments until Ulquiorra's Cero started to overpower through the Black Getsuga. Ichigo widened his eyes when he saw that the blast was becoming bigger and bigger for him, getting closer to blast him through. 'This is bad! I gotta get away from that blast!' Ichigo thought to himself before he started to get away by going to his right, leaping as fast as he could out of there.
The Black Cero reached the dome, causing an extremely powerful explosion to occur by. The blast itself escalated very quickly, with the darkness being shrouded that it managed to reach the other side of the dome. The entire quarter of the dome was caught under the explosion, and unfortunately so was Ichigo, but he did manage not to get a direct hit from it. "Gggghk…" Despite this, Ichigo tried to hang on as much as he could, but that wouldn't get to last long. "Gaaaaaaaah!" Ichigo yelled out from the pain before half his mask shattered apart, and the one side of his Shihakusho tore up. The Cero Oscuras continued to cause destructive damage as the blast caused a massive dent to appear on the dome, its size being equivalent to that of the explosion that occurred as thankfully it hadn't been pierced through.
A strong torrent of Spiritual Pressure weighted down below the canopy of Las Noches, affecting the area of the desert where everybody resided. And on the 5th tower were Orihime and Uryu, their bodies shaking from the overwhelming power of Cero Oscuras, but despite this they stood their ground while gaining headaches.
"What the hell?!" Uryu exclaimed as he looked upwards to the hole that Ulquiorra and Ichigo went through. "Damn it, Ichigo, what's happening up there?!"
Orihime gained a worried look as she continued to stare at the hole, now starting to become concerned with Ichigo's safety. At this point she wouldn't have been worried so much for him when he put that mask on and fought with all he had, but this current wave of power was something more powerful than that. After the wave calmed down, Orihime glanced over at the Quincy. "Uryu…" Orihime spoke firmly, and Uryu looked back at her. "Do you think it would be possible if you could get us both up to the dome by using your powers?"
Uryu made a small frown when hearing this. She was worried about Ichigo's safety, that much was obvious, otherwise she wouldn't request him to do something like this. He was filled with hesitance, unsure whether he should take her up there or let her stay for her safety. If he took her up, Ichigo would be pissed as hell, but that was the least of his worries over that powerful Spiritual Pressure. What would happen if both of them were to fight whatever that was just now? He wasn't sure if Ichigo really did need help or if he could handle it alone, after all he managed to pull out difficult obstacles like this before, but it wasn't always by himself.
But the look on Orihime's face made him submit to her decision, regardless whether or not Ichigo would get mad. He just really hoped there wouldn't be any regrets if he did this. 'Ichigo… you better win this if you know what's good for you. You better not make me end up a liar when I said you would win…' Uryu thought to himself.
A massive amount of smoke steam filled up the air from the after effects of the Black Cero. The smoke itself was coming from the dent, its size being far larger than the pillars that resided at the dome. Ichigo was now seen falling down in the air, his body being as damaged as it was before with half his mask broken and the one side of his Shihakusho being torn, exposing the entire left arm and the left side of his chest being revealed, showing off the muscles they held, along with the bleeding that was shown.
"Fuck…" Ichigo cursed out, feeling an ache forming on his body from the damage he received. He still had more power left in him, so he could fight at least. Ichigo widened his eyes when he saw Ulquiorra appear right in front of him.
Ulquiorra was just ready to swing his javelin at Ichigo, as his right wing covered practically half of his face. Ichigo still gave him that defiant look, and was ready to swing his sword, until Ulquiorra struck Ichigo's sword, sending the Soul Reaper flying all the way out of the smoke until he crashed through a pillar, causing a hole to appear.
"Now do you see… the difference in our strengths?" Ulquiorra asked as he began to walk towards where Ichigo crashed at, and he could clearly see that Ichigo was climbing out of a rumble. This had to at least begin to break his spirit and see how hopeless the situation really was. "No matter how much your appearance and your techniques may resemble that of an Arrancar, there will always be a power gap that they can never close." Ulquiorra already got halfway to where Ichigo was at. "If a Human or a Soul Reaper were to gain more power, then imitating Hollows would be the most logical course of action. But in the end, it is all just imitation, and because of that, humans will never stand equal to Hollows. And that's exactly what you're doing…"
Ulquiorra got through the hole and stood in front of where Ichigo was crouching from the pile of rubble beneath him. Ichigo still held tightly onto the handle of his sword before he started getting back up, despite the aching pain. Ichigo took heavy breaths, fully standing up as he held his blade with his two hands. Ulquiorra became surprised once more to see that Ichigo was not submitting at all. "Are ya done yet? Your blabbering is putting me to sleep…" Ichigo made a weak chuckle. "Getsuga—"
"I told you it's useless!" Ulquiorra yelled, his patience reaching its limit as he vertically swung his weapon at Ichigo, who barely managed to bring his sword above his head before getting launched back through the other side of the pillar.
Ichigo bursted through the pillar and was sent flying back, the sheer might behind Ulquiorra's swing caused the entire pillar to be destroyed in half, with massive rumbles and boulders beginning to fall down on the ground. Ulquiorra got over next to Ichigo's side, and could see that he still refused to let go of his sword. He didn't understand just what was causing him to keep stubbornly fighting like this. Ichigo turned his head to see the Espada, only for Ulquiorra to bring his javelin down at Ichigo and sent him away from behind. Blood spilled out of Ichigo's guts as this happened, tearing another part of his robe before Ichigo got sent through a massive pile of rubble and continued to descend lower. Ulquiorra used his Sonido to appear below Ichigo, whose mask only held a quarter of the semblance of what it once was. The nihilist kicked Ichigo's back, sending him flying upward to another tower, and Ichigo couldn't do anything to stop himself as he got propelled on the pillar before crashing onto it. But it didn't stop there. With the force of Ulquiorra's kick made Ichigo roll over the pillar, tearing through the material as it formed a crater made out of a sloppy straight line until Ichigo reached over to the top.
Ichigo lied on the roof of the pillar, as more damage became exposed to him. His robe covered less than half of his body, with the only thing remaining was just his sleeve, leaving most of his front and his back to be exposed. His socks and sandals were now fully gone, leaving him only barefooted. The lower side of his robe was torn up, mostly exposing Ichigo's left leg, but the other side covered mostly the right leg. His body showed bruises and blood oozing out from his left arm, and trickles ran down from most of his upper body, and blood spilled out of his guts as well. The entire mask that Ichigo had on him has been completely destroyed as well.
Ulquiorra appeared on the rooftop and grabbed Ichigo's throat before lifting him up, bringing him face-to-face. He didn't see the look of defeat anywhere in Ichigo's eyes. He was either delusional or was more thick headed than Yammy was. Couldn't he understand how meaningless this was? How it was utterly pointless to continue? "Tell me… why is it that you refuse to let go of your sword? I have shown you the full power of this form and the difference between us, yet you still think you can defeat me?" Ulquiorra asked, wanting to know why Ichigo continued to fight this battle.
"Difference… in power?" Ichigo looked back down at Ulquiorra. "Dumbass… just showing off your strength to your opponent isn't gonna be enough to get me to surrender… I knew you were stronger than I was, even from the start of our first battle." he saw Ulquiorra becoming confused by this. "You really don't know me at all, do you? I am gonna go through as many battles as I can till I finally beat you, and then after that I'll go after one stronger enemy than the other. I'll go through endless bloodshed and survive for as long as I can, because I am determined to see this through the very end. And I fucking refuse to lose to a dipshit like you." Ichigo began to move his sword, but struggled to do so. "I… will find a way… to beat you…" he choked out, the chain that connected to his hilt silently clinkled. "Ul… qui… o… rra…" he gave off a weak smirk.
Ulquiorra looked at Ichigo as if he'd gone mad. The response not being so… no… he did understand what he was saying, but he couldn't comprehend how nonsensical that was to him. So with that, Ulquiorra tossed Ichigo as if he were garbage, leaving a trail of smoke from behind as Ichigo got tossed back on the rooftop. "That's nonsense…" Ichigo kept coughing until he started to get up, being able to sit on his knees. "Ichigo Kurosaki… your words are the one who hasn't experienced true despair."
Ichigo tried to think of something so he could get out of this situation. So far most of his efforts have been futile, and he was giving everything he had. But all of those thoughts shut down as he began to sense and see an immensely dense amount of Spiritual Energy being released from Ulquiorra's body. "Since you do not understand, I'll teach you…" and along that, Ulquiorra's form began to change drastically. "This… is what True Despair looks like."
Ichigo could do nothing but just sit and watch as his adversary transformed even further. He stared in pure disbelief as Ulquiorra released the second stage of his release, not wanting to believe this was actually happening. Just how could he possibly get out of this right now?
Uryu flew Orihime towards the top of Las Noches, using the same spiritual platform that he used earlier on when he went through the Garganta with Chad and Ichigo. Orihime stood with him as she was taken high into the air, and looked down beneath her to see how far they really were from the ground. "Wow… this seems pretty cool to use." Orihime commented.
"I learned this when I was passing through the Garganta, and realized I could use the same technique in Hueco Mundo as well. I only regret not having to learn this sooner, it could have helped me in some of my earlier battles." Uryu said, continuing to go where Ichigo was fighting Ulquiorra at. He really hoped Ichigo was doing well on his own, and that Orihime might have just been worried for nothing.
As if to answer his question in a twisted manner, the entire environment around them became filled with dark, empty, pitiful void, coming from the dome of Las Noches. The darkness itself drowning those in despair for whosoever came in contact with it. Uryu and Orihime felt it for themselves, being reconciled in shock as they couldn't believe what they were sensing.
"What even is that force… is it Spiritual Pressure?!" Uryu asked more so himself, almost not realizing that he was still flying upwards onto the platform. Orihime had her eyes widen in shock. 'No… is it actually Spiritual Pressure? It feels too different from anything I've ever encountered so far. It's not just powerful… it feels so dense and heavy… like it could crush us at any time. It's as if an ocean was spread above the sky…' Uryu thought to himself.
Now he knew for sure that as powerful as Ichigo was, there was no way he stood a chance at even beating whoever he was fighting. He really would need help by now, and it would be great if the others could join them as well. "This is…" Orihime couldn't get to finish her sentence, trying to regain her composure at the feeling of despair weighted down on them. It made her more worried for Ichigo.
"This is really bad…" Uryu said, now trying to get as fast as he could to the dome. Ichigo would need help big time, and fast. He just hoped he could survive long enough until reinforcements arrived. "We gotta hurry!"
"Resurección: Segunda Etapa." Ulquiorra spoke the name of his new transformation, flapping his wing to cast off the Spiritual Energy and revealed his new form. While he retained his black wings, his long white coat was gone, revealing his slender white torso, with his bare chest patterned so his Hollow hole, which has become larger, appeared to be dripping black, blood-like liquid. His waist became covered in something similar to black fur, which covered his arms and legs. His fingers grew claw-like extensions, and his feet resembled talons. The irises of his eyes turned yellow, and the sclera became green. The tear-like marks under his eyes increased in size and turned black. Ulquiorra's mask was completely gone, and had two large bat ears.
Ichigo couldn't believe what he was looking at. This was difficult enough as it was already, but now he had to go up against that? He stared at the Espada in utter disbelief. "Out of all the Espadas, I alone have achieved this second stage release. I have not even shown this form to the great Lord Aizen yet." Ulquiorra said.
Ichigo would have wished that he had help at this point. He knew that there was a massive power gap between them. But alas, this was something that he would have to do by himself, and it was way too late to just turn back. He was resolved to beat this obstacle somehow, and stick to his promise in saving Orihime. So with that said, he grit his teeth and began to stand up again, using his sword as a support. Ichigo hissed through the pain he felt before standing up and glared at Ulquiorra, refusing to give in.
Ulquiorra didn't understand this. After all what he's shown, he still refused to give up? What was he doing wrong here? Most people would have traded their lives and have a quick death at this point. "Even after seeing this imposing form, you still have the will to fight?" Once again, Ichigo could have sworn he heard incredulousness in Ulquiorra's voice.
"Why are you so hellbent on dragging this fight out?" Ichigo demanded to know, something that made Ulquiorra's eyebrows raise in question. "Don't think I haven't noticed... You could have killed me several times." Ulquiorra could notice that Ichigo's sword was shaking, being clearly intimidated by his power. "So what's the reason?"
'It's not as if he's so confused that he doesn't feel fear… yet he keeps on fighting. Does he still see himself as the winner of this fight? Such foolishness…' Ulquiorra thought before he crouched down, being prepared for the fight to commence. "You really keep being more and more stubborn… very well then, I'll make this shorter if this bothers you so much. I'll make you realize the depths of my power, even if I have to grind your body into dust. You will understand..."
Ulquiorra lunged straight at Ichigo, striking as a fallen shadow that came right at him. Ichigo diagonally put his sword over to defend himself, but before he even knew it Ulquiorra appeared right next to him and grabbed his head. Ichigo widened his eyes in shock, not being able to react at all by the insane speed. Ulquiorra threw Ichigo away, rolling through the roof before being launched into the air and crashing through another pillar. A quarter of the tower fell apart when Ichigo crashed through it. Ulquiorra walked along, believing that it should already be over.
To his surprise, however, he still saw that Ichigo was moving around, trying to get back up again. 'What? He shouldn't even be conscious, let alone still move around.' Ulquiorra thought to himself, finding this to be strange, and could have sworn Ichigo's Spiritual Pressure spiked for a second. No matter, he would still get to beat him around to show, and soon he would sink into the despair.
Ichigo could see Ulquiorra coming at him once more, not giving him time to recover. He tried to prepare himself to make a counter attack as Ulquiorra already got to where he was at. Ichigo swung his sword, but his aim was sloppy and missed cutting Ulquiorra, who landed behind where he was at. Ichigo quickly turned around to put his sword over to his face when Ulquiorra used Sonido to appear right in front of him, grabbing his sword and taking this in the air. Ichigo widened his eyes in shock as Ulquiorra whipped his tail, and made a direct blow. "GUGH!" Ichigo grunted out painfully, coughing up blood from the blow he was received with and got sent launching further in the air.
Ichigo saw a boulder behind him and landed on it before he leaped higher to gain more distance from his opponent. Ulquiorra already followed him, showing no mercy whatsoever. In desperation, Ichigo donned his Hollow mask to gain a power boost so he could at least react to the Espada. He didn't know what to do. He was too strong, he was too fast, and he didn't know where to begin to explore any weakness against that form. "You are a fool, Ichigo Kurosaki…" but this meant nothing to Ulquiorra, who pushed Ichigo higher in the air from their momentary clash. "Why do you challenge an enemy that you can't possibly defeat? Most beings would want to preserve their lives. I can't comprehend this…"
Ulquiorra already closed the distance to his opponent, who desperately held his sword in front to give any attempt to stop him, but this became futile as Ulquiorra forcefully grabbed Ichigo's face and effortlessly crushed his entire mask. "HMPH!" Ichigo's voice became muffled by Ulquiorra's hand before getting thrown through a few towers, and the towers became destroyed in half, causing boulders and rumbles to fall apart.
"You must be doing all of this because of what you humans call the 'heart'. If that truly is the case, then it would appear that it's more of a liability than actual strength." Ulquiorra told him, but wasn't sure why as from this point Ichigo should be long since rendered unconscious, and recalled as to what that girl said. "Because of this meaningless concept called 'heart' it causes humans unnecessary injuries and makes them lose their lives over silly things." Ulquiorra clenched his clawed hand into a fist. "Such stupidity…"
To his shock however, Ulquiorra saw that Ichigo was still up and standing on whatever was left of the tower that was destroyed. He didn't understand. How could he even still be up? He should have long since been unconscious. What kept him going? Or it could be he was just that stubborn to quit. He was just hurting himself, yet kept on fighting. 'What is going on here? He should at least be severely injured, but it's not causing as much damage as it should be… in fact when I beat him around, for brief moments his power fluctuates out on its own… but how is that possible?' Ulquiorra thought in confusion.
"I don't know about all of this 'heart' you just mentioned… but my goal here was never meaningless to begin with. This battle might not mean much for you, but to me it's worth everything on the line down below this dome." Ichigo proceeded to glare at Ulquiorra, and the Espada was shocked to see that Ichigo's eyes turned Hollowfied, and yet he wasn't using his mask at all. Now what was going on? Wait, was his power increasing all of a sudden? "I'm not here just so that I WANT to win. I'm here because I HAVE to! You were right on one thing, I am afraid of your strength…" it was then that Spiritual Energy began to release out of Ichigo, making his power rise exponentially. "But that fear pales in comparison to the fear of losing everyone if I lose here!"
Ichigo gripped onto the handle of his swords tightly with both his hands, his blade engulfed by his power as he seemed to be ready to unleash a Getsuga. Ulquiorra widened his eyes in shock as Ichigo's Spiritual Pressure went through the roof. 'Where is he getting all that power from?! A second ago he could barely stand up, and now his power is increasing unlike anything he previously showed!' Ulquiorra thought in shock. 'It keeps going higher and higher!' Ulquiorra began to inspect closer upon Ichigo's Spiritual Pressure, who's energy was wildly flowing out of him. 'Wait a minute… his power is fluctuating. But how can that be? It keeps on increasing, but at some moments it becomes lower, but it mostly skyrockets.'
Ichigo charged as much power as he could possibly muster, his blade burning brightly from the energy he was pumping into. He would focus all the remaining energy in him for this one blow. If this didn't work, he didn't what would be able to after this. 'I just need to borrow more power.' he thought. "Graaaaaagh!" Ichigo yelled as he spun his sword to charge a release, and Ichigo could see the shocked look on Ulquiorra's face. "GETSUGA… TENSHOUUU!" Ichigo screamed his lungs out as he fired off his most powerful Getsuga as of yet.
The Getsuga was fired off from the blade and came hurling towards Ulquiorra as a monstrous projectile of doom that was ready to destroy his body. Ulquiorra visibly gasped as the projectile was coming at him from high speeds. For the briefest moment, Ulquiorra felt fear from the attack lunging at him head-on. On pure instinct, Ulquiorra moved his body away from the danger as fast as he could, and just narrowly avoided the projectile beam. The beam continued to travel onwards in the sky, not stopping its trajectory until it could no longer be seen.
Ulquiorra looked over to see where the Getsuga headed off to, not believing in what just happened. He turned around to look back at Ichigo once more, who was breathing heavily and bent down to his knees. 'He might have been able to… no… he would have been able to kill me, had that attack hit me head-on. Even other Espadas ranked above me would have been in major trouble if that attack hit them…' Ulquiorra thought as he tried to process what happened. 'He shouldn't have any strength left in him. Yet somehow… he managed to close the gap between us, even if for a moment. Could it be that the reason he did was because… no, it couldn't be…' Ulquiorra clenched his clawed hands and balled them into fists.
'Damn it... I missed, and that's all the strength I had in me. It would be great… if I could have some backup right about now.' Ichigo thought to himself, trying to keep himself conscious from all the energy he exerted. To his surprise, he saw that Ulquiorra's expression began to change into something he thought he wouldn't get to see.
It was anger.
"That's enough…" Ulquiorra had all he could take right now. This has gone on for long enough, and he would not stand to let this go by for a second longer. It was time to finish this. Ulquiorra then charged at Ichigo once more…
Uryu and Orihime continued to glide upwards, going as fast as they could so they could make it to the dome. They previously managed to feel Ichigo's Spiritual Pressure skyrocket, and at its peak it exceeded Ulquiorra's monstrous power. But then it suddenly began to decrease, making it more and more difficult for them to sense him. Eventually, both teens managed to reach above the canopy of Las Noches, and when they did Uryu dispelled his technique, making both him and Orihime land on the ground.
"Something's not right here... I don't sense Ichigo's Spiritual Pressure anywhere." Uryu commented as he looked around where Ichigo could be at. The fact that he wasn't able to sense gave him a red flag already.
Orihime only ran to the front, looking to see where Ichigo could be at. When she looked upwards, her eyes widened in disbelief once seeing what laid before her at the very top of a pillar. She didn't want to believe it. At the very top of the tower stood Ulquiorra and Ichigo, with Ichigo being hung over by Ulquiorra's tail, the damage shown on him being a horrific sight to look at, along with broken bones that were damaged from the onslaught of Ulquiorra's attack. In fact, now Ichigo had been so badly beaten that he was rendered unconscious.
Ulquiorra looked down below once sensing Orihime came here, along with the Quincy, but he could care less about him. In fact, the girl's timing couldn't be any better, now having calmed down after giving Ichigo a proper beatdown. "So you've come, girl, how nice of you to join." Ulquiorra spoke in his normal tone, not really caring if Orihime could hear him or not.
"Ichigo…" Orihime was horrified by the sight she could look at, despite how far the distance was where it was at.
"Now pay close attention…" Ulquiorra thought about if he could just grip his tail hard enough to squeeze Ichigo's neck until it popped, but he gained a better idea in his mind. Ulquiorra pointed his finger at Ichigo's bare chest. "Here is the man you've entrusted all your hope into. Bear witness as his life comes to an end." Ulquiorra began to charge a Cero Oscuras from his finger.
Orihime could do nothing but just watch as Ulquiorra charged up the Black Cero. Her eyes became wide as possible, her expression shifting into sheer horror as for what was about to occur. She knew what was gonna happen next, her face becoming pale as all she could do was do nothing but just watch. "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Orihime screamed out at the top of her lungs, pleading for something or anything to just magically stop this from happening.
It didn't. Instead, Ulquiorra fired off his Black Cero and it went straight through Ichigo's chest. Now with all the previous damage being done to Ichigo, along with a blast emitting through his chest, that was the moment that his life was sealed away. And so with that, Ichigo died.
Bet you weren't really expecting the chapter to be released this soon, were ya? To be honest, I was honestly planning on making this chapter go on longer, but this seemed to be a good time to end this on a cliffhanger. Yeah I had to do something like this eventually. Alright so let's break down what happened.
First portion was with Masked Ichigo vs First Release Ulquiorra, yeah it's not really as one sided like it was in Canon, but Ulquiorra still got the upper hand in the fight. And then there was with Hyorinmaru vs Halibel and Toshiro's Zanpakuto still getting his ass handed. Now this is more so of a fight that Hyorinmaru and Halibel are more or less equal in power, but it's just more so Halibel still has more experience and is more skilled, something that's already established in the fight.
But now the Soi Fon vs Ggio Vega didn't really make much sense to me upon rewatching the fight, because basically Soi Fon could have speed blitzed Ggio the entire time… yet she wasted her time up against fodder… which really doesn't seem fitting for an assassin. Like granted Soi Fon never really fought an Arrancar and could basically just try to get a feel on what it was like to fight one, but how would fighting fodder help you know how to fight against an Espada? Especially one of the top tiers like Barragan and his crazy hax. If it were to actually help her how to fight and study what it was like with Ggio, it did jack shit against Barragan. I honestly thought about making the fight extremely short and just go with Barragan right off the bat, but that properly wouldn't go well if Soi Fon was left to die.
And also that Shunsui and Starrk have just now begun to get into a real fight. If you did notice, the timing of the things in this are kinda different than in Canon. This is gonna become necessary later on when Ichigo arrives in Fake Karakura. Also, I did find the idea of a Black Getsuga vs Black Cero to be pretty cool, but unfortunately poor Ichi still wasn't strong enough when Ulquiorra used the full strength of his first form. Also to be honest, I did think about if I could establish in this story just how Ulquiorra did achieve Segunda Etapa, because we literally have no information how Ulquiorra even managed to achieve this. Like nothing
Also for the last on Ichigo's power fluctuating. This is actually something my Co-Author suggested for this to happen, because in the very beginning of the Arrancar arc when Ichigo first fought Yammy, it was mentioned by Ulquiorra on how Ichigo's power fluctuated where at one his power was too weak, and then at another it was higher than his (most likely his base form), and something that also more or less happened on this show called Saint Seiya (I haven't watched it but I eventually plan to, it's mostly my partner telling me some of the stuff that happens there). So with that there was inspiration taken from those. So basically what happened in this was that Ichigo borrowed more power that laid dormant in himself.
And now… you know what's coming next… the Vasto Lorde approaches…